Mayor's education rep to get good pay

Departing Columbus teachers union President Rhonda Johnson will be paid $145,000 a year when she becomes Mayor Michael B. Coleman's education director in June.

Bill Bush, The Columbus Dispatch

Departing Columbus teachers union President Rhonda Johnson will be paid $145,000 a year when she becomes Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s education director in June.

Johnson’s cabinet-level job will come with a nonvoting post on the Columbus Board of Education, where the seven elected board members can earn no more than $125 per meeting, up to a maximum of $4,500 a year, by state law.

Johnson will lead Coleman’s new education initiatives, including a three-person staff and a $5 million city grant program to provide preschool for up to 600 4-year-olds.

That program specifies that to participate, parents must intend to send their children to Columbus City Schools for kindergarten. Parents who plan to send their child to a charter or private school are ineligible, according to the request for proposals the city sent to preschool providers.

“Family must reside within the boundaries of the Columbus City School district with the intention of sending their child (or children) to Columbus City Schools,” the guidelines state.

The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools opposes the restriction, saying it limits parents’ options for high-quality education. “Our philosophy is that one size doesn’t fit all,” said Ellen Maxfield, a spokeswoman for the pro-charter group.

Johnson will make about $35,000 more than the average school superintendent in Ohio. She said it isn’t fair to compare her salary to that of a superintendent because the jobs are not similar.

“I think it’s different work than being a superintendent,” Johnson said, adding that a better comparison would be the salaries of other Columbus cabinet-level employees or those who work for big-city mayors.

Last year, Coleman’s cabinet members were paid from $138,881 annually for Recreation and Parks Director Alan McKnight to $186,971 for Dr. Theresa Long, the medical doctor who runs Columbus Public Health.

Mitchell J. Brown, the Columbus public-safety director, who is in charge of all police and firefighters and about 70 percent of the city’s operating budget, was paid $150,600 last year.

“Education is a priority for the mayor,” said Coleman spokesman Dan Williamson, when asked about Johnson’s salary. “This is a big position.”

Johnson will oversee an office funded by $433,000 approved by the city council. The office’s major responsibility will be to administer the $5 million preschool grant program and about $1.6 million in other education-related programs the city council approved. All told, her office will oversee less than 1 percent of the city’s operating budget.

She doesn’t take over the post until June and hasn’t had much time to devote to the grant program’s development while she continues to lead the Columbus Education Association, she said.

Johnson said she doesn’t think that the city could do anything to parents whose children get preschool slots and end up attending charter or private schools.

“This is kind of our first investment in the early-learning area,” said Matt Smydo, a former staff member on Coleman’s Education Commission who helped put the program together after recently being hired at City Hall. “We want to focus on the kids who are going to go to kindergarten in the Columbus City Schools district. We’re focusing on our city schools at this time,” but that could be expanded to charter and private schools down the road, he said.

It is unclear how many preschool slots will be created under the first round of grants, to be awarded in the next few weeks, because “we are going to make sure that we award only the highest-quality programs,” Smydo said.

He will begin working for Johnson starting this summer.

The city will provide $8,400 per child to providers who offer full-year, six-hour-a-day preschool to at least 20 students. The amount was reached by talking to experts in the preschool field, Smydo said. The amount is “comparable to some of the really good programs out there,” he said.

Only preschool providers already in operation can apply for the grants. About 30 people interested in applying attended a question-and-answer session this year.

Johnson also will oversee a new $1.5 million program that will develop coursework with Columbus State Community College to train unemployed or underemployed adults in skills that local businesses need.

It also will fund a liaison, through Columbus Public Health, to help Columbus City Schools nurses find needed medical care for students.

bbush@dispatch.com

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